


Satisfaction Brought It Back

by obsidianlullaby



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Illustrated, Jötunn Loki, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 13:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsidianlullaby/pseuds/obsidianlullaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Tony isn't allowed to fight alongside the Avengers, and Loki has nothing better to do than find out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Satisfaction Brought It Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LexandAves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexandAves/gifts).



> For frostironfest! I'm sorry this isn't, well, better. For various reasons, I had to get it done in a day, so it's not as polished as I like my work to be. I hope you can enjoy it anyway <3

Pepper was gone, along with the company. Tony wasn’t allowed on missions until he “got himself better,” as ordered by Fury. He couldn’t sleep, which meant he was too tired to be of any use in the lab. The Avengers avoided him, despite the fact that they were generously housed in _his goddamn tower_. Bruce was the only one who was willing to have a proper conversation, and those inevitably ended with Bruce telling Tony that he needed help. Like, real help. The kind of help that didn’t involve spinning sarcastic, self-glorifying tales for your best friend but rather required you to talk about your traumas and _process_  them.

No, thanks.

So, with nothing else much to do, Tony spent his days playing video games and strolling around New York. One day, about two weeks into his forced leave of absence from superheroing, he wound up outside a pet shop. He stared through the glass for a minute, thought what the hell, and walked in.

He’d wanted a pet, when he was younger, but dad had never allowed it. Now seemed like a pretty good time to revisit that childhood dream.

There were tons of little furballs stowed away in stacks of cages. Tony eyed one puppy with messy white hair and a wet nose. He poked his finger through the wires of the cage. The puppy sniffed it curiously and then started licking him gleefully.

“Buy me dinner first,” Tony joked.

“I’d love to,” said a voice behind him. A voice Tony knew. Shit. Shit, _shit_.

Tony turned and found Loki, in jeans and a green t-shirt, holding a black cat and grinning.

Shit.

“Decided you needed a cat to round out the supervillain look?” Tony stalled. His suit should be here in a few minutes. Hopefully he could keep Loki from killing him for that long.

“Actually, I was following you,” Loki said. “I do quite like him, though.”

“Following me? I’m flattered.”

“Mm. Shall we?”

“What?”

“Dinner.”

Tony blinked. “Uh…”

Loki laughed. “Come on, Stark. Have you something better to do?”

“Better that eating dinner with one of my archnemeses who will undoubtedly poison my food? I think so, yeah.”

“No poison, I promise.”

“Says the god of lies. What possible reason could you have to do anything with me other than as a way to make an attempt on my life?”

Loki scratched behind the kitten’s ears. “I’m a very curious creature.”

“Uh, yeah. Curious what my entrails taste like, maybe. Pass.”

“Curious as to why you have been absent from the last three battles I have done with your comrades.”

Tony swallowed. “None of your business.”

Loki eyed the window. “That light is your suit, is it not? I know you called it the second you saw me. Let’s take this outside, shall we? No need to endanger all the dear little lives in this shop.”

“I’m guessing you don’t mean the humans.”

“I’ve always had a soft spot for animals.”

“Maybe because you are one.”

It was a lame jibe, really lame, but Loki’s face crumpled. It only took him a second to replace his false smile, but it had definitely vanished for second there, and… and Tony didn’t feel as proud as he should have.

“Outside,” Loki said.

Tony warily followed him out the door--was something going to blow up?--and his suit was on him in seconds.

Loki still had the cat, which was really fucking weird. He looked at Tony for a long moment, then said, “Do you gamble, Tony?”

“What?” Tony stuttered.

“We’ll fight, since you seem so devoted to the idea. But I’d like to make a wager.”

“Oh, would you?”

“If I win, you have to tell me what you’ve been doing for the past two weeks.”

“And if I win?” Tony asked, which was obviously the wrong response, but he made it anyway.

Loki tilted his head. “What do you want?”

“I want you to explain how your magic works to me. Thor’s got no damn clue.”

Loki smiled. “Deal.” He set the kitten down on the sidewalk, magicked into his armor, and spread his arms. “Your move.”

* * *

Tony groaned.

“Oh, you’re finally awake.”

“What the fuck?”

Tony was lying on his own bed in his street clothes. Loki was reclining in the chair in the far corner of the room, reading one of Tony’s books.

“How did you get me out of the armor?” Tony choked.

“Ah, my apologies, sir. That was my doing.”

“JARVIS! What the hell?”

“I could barely get you home with Mr. Laufeyson’s assistance, sir. Leaving you in a dead suit would have been most unwise.”

“With Mr. Laufeyson’s assistnce, huh?” Tony asked, eyeing Loki, who had finally put down the book.

Loki smiled innocently.

“You’ve been holding back on us,” Tony said, pointing accusatorially. “You’ve never fought like that before.”

“Playing the long game,” Loki shrugged.

“So why’d you suddenly break out the big guns?”

“Curiosity killed the cat, as they say,” Loki smirked, and that was when Tony noticed that that fucking kitten was curled up on his lap. “Now tell me.”

“How did you get in here without the others noticing you?”

“Doom is occupying them. Stop avoiding the question.”

“What question?”

“Stark, I will kill you where you lie.”

“JARVIS, you’re just going to let him threaten me like that?”

“You _are_  being rather needlessly belligerent, sir.”

“I should’ve built an AI with less of an attitude.”

“ _Stark._ ”

Tony closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them. “PTSD.”

Loki put the kitten on the floor, stood, and came over to Tony’s side, which was really scary but JARVIS wasn’t doing shit about it.

“The wormhole?” Loki asked.

“The wormhole… And the cave.”

“I see,” Loki said.

And then he was climbing onto the bed and straddling Tony and--

“What the fuck! JARVIS!”

“I have already discussed my intentions with your machine. One of your suits is standing guard outside the door, prepared to intervene should I make any move to harm you.”

“This isn’t a move to harm me?” Tony yelled.

Loki traced a hand down the side of Tony’s face. “No, it is not.”

“Get off of--mmph!”

Wow, okay. Those sure were Loki’s lips. On his lips. Kissing him.

And then he pulled away just when Tony was getting kind of into it. Unfair.

Loki had his arms up over his face.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tony asked.

“Don’t look at me!” Loki screamed.

“Hey, no, what the hell,” Tony said, and shoved Loki onto his back.

“Okaaay…” Tony said.

Loki was blue. And not the holding-your-breath kind of blue. The smurf kind of blue.

Loki was staring up at him in… terror? It definitely looked like terror. He had already proved he could kick Tony’s ass up and down New York; Tony really wasn’t sure what Loki was scared of now.

“Don’t look at me,” Loki whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Sir?” JARVIS asked.

“We’re good here,” Tony said.

“Very well.”

“Is this some magic gone awry?” Tony asked Loki.

“No.”

“Tell me, or I’ll call in the suit. I’ll call in several suits. I’ll call in _Thor_ , he’s gotta be almost back by now.”

Loki opened his eyes and hissed. “This is my true form.”

“So you’re a Navi?”

“A what? No, I’m a jotun. By birth.”

“And a jotun is…?”

“A frost giant.”

“Seriously? Frost giants are a thing on Asgard?”

“No. On Jotunheim. They’ve warred with Asgard for much longer than I’ve been alive.”

“Ah,” Tony said. “So they’re the bad guys.”

“Yes,” Loki spat.

“Which makes you a bad guy.”

“Obviously.”

“You’re an idiot. You’ve been fighting with us all this time just to live down to your world’s expectations of you?”

Loki opened his mouth in astonishment.

“By the way, the blue’s not a bad look. Weird. But not bad.”

Then Tony leaned down and kissed him.

* * *


End file.
